Schools are a part of a system of oppression that prepares people for a place in society. Schools are institutions that are designed to teach its follows(students) that without it they are failures. Without getting an education there is no way they will be able to succeed in life. Schools are there to “save” them. Teaching them how to function and behave in society, instead of teaching them how to think for themselves.The schools hold the power. Schools are teacher centered rather than focused on the students. The teachers teach students what they want. Students are taught to with a specific curriculum and textbooks are beaten into their heads, forcing them to conform with the system.
There’s a bigger picture to what is being taught in schools . There is a “hidden curriculum” where students are taught by the teachers to obey authority, to do as they are told, to become like sheep. In order to function within existing systems in our society. So those students who rebel against this teaching and disrespect the teachers (authority) are seen as the “trouble makers” in classes and are reprimanded by school authority.
A certain set of values, attitudes, and knowledge taught by the teachers are enforced and conveyed to the students. For example “the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined; the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply; the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing; the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects”. Teachers prepare these students for a place in society where the same rules apply, they must be able to obey those with the power and not have anything against it but accept it as reality.
The system wants students to learn certain skills and knowledge from school so that they can become working class citizens. So that they can go to college, get a job, and work for the man. To become workers and consumers. It’s like a cycle. There’s a path that schools teach students to follow which is to cooperate with society. Being brainwashed by learning how to please and follow society’s rules. Students without an education are seen as failures in society. They are made to believe that there is no way to succeed in the future or in society if they don’t become what society wants.The system oppresses the students, holds them back and dumb them down. Teaching stuff that doesn’t encourage free thinking. According to Paulo Freire, teachers use the “banking” approach to education which allows them to fill the students with information. That the students store and memorize in their brains becoming “deposits”. This allows the teachers and the system to control their minds, which the system benefits from not the students.
Freire proposes a different way of teaching to escape this oppression. By changing the way schools are teacher centered and making them student centered. To get the students to start thinking for themselves instead of what they are being taught to think. The school should work together with the students to create their own curriculum and knowledge being taught. In the movie “Dead Poets Society” the teacher encourages the student’s free thinking by making them rip up their textbooks. The teacher encourages learning from a new perspective. The students break routine and are encouraged to consider what they think. Teachers should be guides for students learning process not saviors or dictators.
Theodore Sizer, an education reform advocate, would also agree with Freire. That school should focus on the students using their minds more. Where the students are valued and the teachers are just their coaches. This is how SOF was designed. In SOF the students and teacher work together to improve the learning process and knowledge being taught. Students use the habits of mind which push their thinking further and allows them to question the material being taught to them. The school and teachers encourage free thinking. It’s more focused on the students and what they have to say, rather than the teacher doing all of the teaching. Instead of
oppressing the students, SOF offers a type of balanced education.
Dr. Lisa Delpit also agrees with the idea of working with the students and not against them. To bring the students and the teachers together to develop a curriculum that the students can benefit from. Where the students are taken into consideration and their knowledge is being pushed. Where the students are actually learning and thinking for themselves.
Schools should not oppress the students but should encourage the student’s free thinking. To give the students a chance and to stop teaching that without an education or following what society wants them to become there is no way for them to succeed in life. The system as a whole has the power and won't compromise with the students wants but schools should encourage students and teachers to work together for a better learning experience at least in their classes. To not conform to what society wants but becoming a free individual. To not let the system over power them, dictate ,or plan out their lives.
Work cited:
Dead Poets Society
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Stanley, Nile. " Interview with Lisa Delpit: Discovering Brilliance in Our Children." Publication of the Florida Reading Association 40.2 (2003): n. pag. Web. 25 Apr 2010.
Dead Prez- "They Schools"
Fox, Margalit. "Theodore R. Sizer, Leading Education-Reform Advocate, Dies at 77 ." New York Times (2009): n. pag. Web. 25 Apr 2010.
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